Private secondary schools in five Uttar Pradesh districts have come under scrutiny over alleged non-compliance with a rule requiring them to spend at least 75% of their fee income on teachers’ salaries, following discrepancies flagged by the state Legislative Council’s committee examining the commercialisation of education.
The central development
The scrutiny also found instances where the salary expenditure was less than half of the reported fee income. Records submitted in 2024 for three schools in Prayagraj showed that only Jagat Taran Golden Jubilee School met the prescribed 75% norm, while the other institutions fell short of it. A prominent CBSE school in Shivkuti, for example, reported spending 34.45% of its income on teachers’ salaries in 2021-22, 42.33% in 2022-23 and 42.79% in 2023-24, according to the financial statements examined by the committee.
The committee ordered scrutiny of private schools in Prayagraj, Lucknow, Agra, Aligarh and Gorakhpur, and sought a report from the principal secretary concerned within a month, a senior official of the state secondary education department said. The committee’s scrutiny also brought the financial practices of private schools under greater examination, particularly the relationship between fee collections and expenditure on teaching staff, said officials.
